Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons: Medieval and Early Modern Constructions of Alterity SERIES EDITORS Kathleen Perry Long Luke Morgan Cornell University Monash University, Australia SERIES ADVISORy BOARD Elizabeth B. Bearden Maria Fabricius Hansen University of Wisconsin University of Copenhagen Jeffrey Jerome Cohen Virginia A. Krause George Washington University Brown University Surekha Davies Jennifer Spinks Western Connecticut State University University of Melbourne Richard H. Godden Debra Higgs Strickland Louisiana State University University of Glasgow Wes Williams University of Oxford See our website for further information on this series and its publications. Medieval Institute Publications is a program of The Medieval Institute, College of Arts and Sciences Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance Dwarves, Hirsutes, and Castrati as Idealized Anatomical Anomalies Touba Ghadessi Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons: Medieval and Early Modern Constructions of Alterity MEDIEVAL InSTITuTE PuBLICATIOnS Western Michigan university Kalamazoo Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of Western Michigan university Publication is made possible in part by a gift from Elizabeth and Todd Warnock to the Department of Art History at northwestern university. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress. ISBn 978-1-580442-75-6 e-ISBn 978-1-580442-76-3 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Contents List of Plates vii List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1 Difference as an Inquiry 9 2 Renaissance Portrait and Intellectual Frame 41 3 Perfected Miniatures: Dwarves at Court 53 4 A Civilized Savage: The Hirsute’s Conquest 99 5 Audible Absence: The Castrato’s Voice 133 Epilogue 167 Bibliography 171 Index 193 List of Plates Plate 1. Agnolo Bronzino, Portrait of Morgante, ca. 1547, Galleria degli uffizi, Florence Plate 2. Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Antoinette Gonsalvus, 1595, Musée des Beaux-Arts du Château de Blois, Blois. RMn-Grand Palais/Art Resource, new york Plate 3. Andrea Sacchi, Portrait of Marc’Antonio Pasqualini, 1640, Metropolitan Museum of Art, new york Plate 4. Agnolo Bronzino, Cosimo I de’Medici as Orpheus, ca. 1539, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Plate 5. Agostino Carracci, Composition with Figures and Animals: Hairy Harry, Mad Peter and Tiny Amon, 1598, Museo di Capodimonte, naples. Scala/Ministero per i Bene e le Attività culturali/Art Resource, new york Plate 6. Joris Hoefnagel, Plate I from Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis), ca. 1575–80, national Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Plate 7. Joris Hoefnagel, Plate II from Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis), ca. 1575–80, national Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Plate 8. Jusepe de Ribera(?), Portrait of Madeleine Gonsalvus(?), ca. 1615, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London List of Illustrations Figure 1.1. Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Papal Ass of Rome, from Melanchthon and Luther Deuttung der zwo grewlichen Figuren, 1523, © The Trustees of The British Museum, London 11 Figure 1.2. ulisse Aldrovandi, the monster of Ravenna, page 369, De monstrorum historia, 1642, Wheaton College Permanent Collection, newell Bequest Fund, norton, Massachusetts 13 Figure 1.3. Jan van Kalkar, title page of Andreas Vesalius De humani corporis fabrica, 1543. HIP/Art Resource, new york 14 Figure 1.4. Ambroise Paré, illustration for conjoined twins, page 647, Les Oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré, conseiller et premier chirurgien du roy. Douziesme Edition, Chez Jean Gregoire, 1664, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 18 Figure 1.5. Ambroise Paré, illustration for a man lacking a limb, page 656, Les Oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré, conseiller et premier chirurgien du roy. Douziesme Edition, Chez Jean Gregoire, 1664, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 19 Figure 1.6. Ambroise Paré, illustration for a half-man, half-pig monster, page 665, Les Oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré, conseiller et premier chirurgien du roy. Douziesme Edition, Chez Jean Gregoire, 1664, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 20 Figure 1.7. ulisse Aldrovandi, a marine monster, page 356, De monstrorum historia, 1642, Wheaton College Permanent Collection, newell Bequest Fund, norton, Massachusetts 25 Figure 1.8. ulisse Aldrovandi, a half-dog, half-human conjoined twin monster, page 366, De monstrorum historia, 1642, Wheaton College Permanent Collection, newell Bequest Fund, norton, Massachusetts 26 Figure 1.9. ulisse Aldrovandi, the dwarf of Charles de Créquy, page 40, De monstrorum historia, 1642, Wheaton College Permanent Collection, newell Bequest Fund, norton, Massachusetts 27
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